Monday, August 27, 2007

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death

Corinne May Botz... Three Room Dwelling (Gun in Kitchen) (from the series The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death, 2003, C-Print, Edition of six). From Works by Corinne May Botz at Bellwether Gallery in New York. "...In 'The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death' photographer Corinne May Botz explores a collection of eighteen crime scene models that were built in the 1940's and 50's by a progressive criminologist Frances Glessner Lee (1878–1962). The crime scene models, which were based on actual homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths, were created to train detectives to assess visual evidence. Like a forensic detective herself, Botz meticulously re-traces Lee’s footsteps with her camera and lights. Her large-scale color photographs shrewdly frame the idiosyncratic and haunting details from these captivating murder scene dollhouses. Such noir fiction shuttles between the detective photography of Weegee and the dollhouse narrative photography by Laurie Simmons to explore the dark side of domestic life." Also... Frances Glessner Lee at Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body.